It’s Not Albus’s Day

Tuesday, 15th August, 7:21 p.m

3 days, 11.3 hours after the start of Harry's trial The kitchen of Number 12, Grimmauld Place

Ever since Harry and Hermione had said goodbye to the Grangers and had returned to Grimmauld Place, both teens had been as excited as though they had been drinking a Pepper- Up potion every hour, and they both had been smiling nonstop.

Sirius was not used to seeing Harry smile (except briefly). What Sirius had become accustomed to seeing on Harry's face was a look of grim determination—this, or despair. But neither of those emotions had been on Harry's face since he had returned from MMA.

None of the wizard-raised wizards at Grimmauld Place (Sirius, Remus, the Twins, and Arthur), had said much during dinner, except to ask clarification-questions of Harry and Hermione. Hermione had been talkative, no surprise—but Harry also had been talkative.

Sirius thought, All that these two kids did today was to transfer to the Muggle-born school— correction, the school for Muggle-raised magical children—and Harry and Hermione both act like they've been rescued from death. Is Hogwarts really so bad now?

After dinner, Harry and Hermione had announced that they were headed to the library. And Sirius was sure that indeed, the library was where the betrothed couple would be found at this moment. But Sirius had not missed, during dinner, the half-lidded looks that the bookworm had been sending the Boy Who Lived. Sirius suspected that at this very moment, the couple was doing personal research on "The History of Snogging."

****

Sirius's thoughts were interrupted by Arthur asking him, "So, Sirius, as the only person in the tour without a connexion to the Muggle world, what are your thoughts about the school they'll be going to now?"

Sirius replied, "Actually, I do have a connexion to the Muggle world, but it's tiny. Yule break of seventh year, Lily invited the Marauders to Christmas Eve dinner with her family. Lily's sister Petunia was a right bint, by the way. Anyway, I watched a programme on the 'telly,' and listened to four lads from Liverpool sing. I don't remember the group's name now, and I'd never heard of them in 1977, but all four Evanses assured me the quartet was quite famous, worldwide, in the Muggle world. Petunia called me a 'gormless idiot' because I'd never heard of, erm—dammit, the group's name sounds like an insect."

Sirius sighed. "Merlin, I miss Lily. Hermione reminds me of Lily, so much. But to answer your question, Arthur—

"All we wizard-raised magicals, no matter whether we're Death Eaters or 'Light' wizards, believe in our hearts that by letting Muggle-borns enter our world, that we've rescued them.

Right? We all feel that if it weren't for us, the Muggle-borns would all be stuck walking behind a plough for the rest of their lives. Then when the Muggle-borns do come to our world, how do the rest of us magicals, us wizard-raised magicals, see them? We see them as nuisances, because they don't know anything at first. The Death Eaters want to kill the nuisances; or at least, send them back to the nonmagical world. Those of us on the 'Light' side might befriend the Muggle-borns and we might teach them—but always, we pity them on some level. I can remember looking at Lily and thinking, 'Just think how much more you could be achieving now, if you'd grown up in a magical family.' "

The Twins interrupted: "Since his trial, Harry—" "—refers to all Purebloods as 'Inbreds.' "

"The Prewett family is inbred enough—"

"—that Mum has a second cousin who's a Squib." The Twins said together, "We've never met him." Back to the tennis-match: "So, Harry's mum, if—" "—she were Pureblood—"

"—instead of being the Hermione of your generation—"

"—could've been an older, ginger-haired, witch-version of Marcus Flint." "Merlin," Arthur said.

Sirius resumed his tale: "MMA is a magical school, but it also teaches Muggle subjects. Gentlemen, the Muggles have left us behind. In the Astronomy classroom, they've a ceiling shaped like the inside of the upper half of a big ball, and they can make little dots of light that represent stars, show on that ceiling. Meaning, students at MMA can learn about astronomy during the daytime. The Muggles have managed to put a telescope miles above the Earth without it ever falling down, and the photographs that this telescope has taken, are indescribable. But the truly amazing thing for me were the computers. They're boxes that— Hermione described them as 'They don't think, but they make you think that they think.' "

"What do the 'computers' do?" asked a Twin.

"Whatever you want. You can use a computer to write an essay inside the computer—then you do something with an oval box that you hold in your hand, and a machine in a corner of the room prints pages. The pages look like something printed in a book, but they're your words. The computer also lets you read 'Web pages' that are stored thousands of miles away, as if this computer itself stored the 'Web page.' Hermione showed me a Web page for something called 'Disneyland' that was stored in California, USA, according to her. Once Hermione told her computer to nonmagically summon a copy of the Disneyland page from California, it took less than a minute. Hermione said that computers can be used to play

games, in which pictures move and the computer makes sounds, but Meadows didn't demonstrate any games.

"Anyway, this morning there were many times when Norwood and Meadows, and the Granger parents, Hermione and Harry all would start discussing some Muggle topic, and I had no idea what they were talking about. Lasers, for instance. I'm still not clear how a laser works, but a magical laser is a thin, red, bright line that comes out of someone's wand, and this red line can cut through a wall."

"Wicked," the Twins said in unison.

Sirius said, "But fine, I could handle feeling thick and ignorant. After all, this happened all the time at Hogwarts, whenever I talked to Lily. No, the most shocking thing about the tour was something that Norwood, the headmistress, said in her office, not in a classroom."

Sirius sighed, then resumed: "Remember that all British Muggleborns, at age eleven, are given the choice of going to Hogwarts—Minnie never mentions MMA as an alternative—or else the kid gets his or her magic bound, and Obliviators wipe all knowledge of magic, not only from the kid's mind, but also from the other family members' minds—"

"It sounds cruel," Arthur said, "but it's for a good reason: to keep the magical world staying secret."

"Anyway, only a few families of Muggle-borns choose the second option; the rest send their kids to Hogwarts. And we wizard-raised magicals think smugly, 'Of course the Muggle-borns choose Hogwarts.' But here's a quote from Headmistress Norwood: 'Quite a few of us "Muggle-borns," back when we were eleven, if the Ministry had allowed our magic to be bound without also wiping the knowledge of magic from ourselves and our families, would have refused magical schooling and would have lost our magic, and the choice would have been easy. But we weren't given such a choice, so here we are. Our magic is unimportant to us.' "

"Blimey," said Remus. "I wonder if Lily felt that way."

"Not Hermione," said Sirius. "I asked. Since Minnie visited her, Hermione has been keen to learn about magic, even when this meant attending a shit school. Which is what Hogwarts has been for Harry and Hermione, from the start—a shit school. Did everyone notice how much happier those two are now, because they don't have to attend Hogwarts anymore?"

Remus, Arthur, and the Twins all nodded.

Sirius said, "Norwood also referred to us wizard-raised British magicals as 'Victorians with wands.' I had to ask Hermione what the term meant. The term refers to a nineteenth-century Queen of Great Britain—and don't ask me why the word comes from her name, not the name of her husband the King. Anyway, calling us 'Victorians with wands' means that Norwood thinks we're rigid and we're stuck in the nineteenth century."

****

Meanwhile, in the Grimmauld Place Library

Sirius had been right, in that most of the time that Harry and Hermione had spent in the library after dinner, had been spent snogging—along with some caressing of fun body parts through clothing.

But such fun things were not all of what the teens were doing in the library. Right now, Harry was writing letters to Zelda Crabbe, who was Widow Crabbe, and to Bertha Goyle, who was Widow Goyle.

The letters reminded the widows that he, Harry Potter, was now Head of their Houses by Right of Conquest, as of two days ago. He was writing to appoint the widows to be stewards of their respective Houses, since each widow knew the workings of her House much better than Harry did. Harry then wrote, "As Head of your House, I won't look over your shoulder and demand that you explain every purchase you make as steward, but from time to time, I'll send goblins to audit you."

Then Harry switched his persona, mid-letter. Now he was writing as Lord Malfoy, and as such, he forgave the debt owed by the letter-reader's House to House Malfoy—G10 026 by House Crabbe, G11 683 by House Goyle. Harry then wrote that no longer was anybody in House Crabbe/Goyle required to give service to anyone in House Malfoy. Harry's letter to Bertha Goyle specifically stated, "When your daughter Galina comes to Hogwarts next year, she won't be required to be a personal servant, either to Draco or to me."

When both letters were written, Harry called for Goldy (the head House Malfoy house-elf) and sent him to deliver the letters to Widow Crabbe and to Widow Goyle.

After Goldy elf-popped away, Harry explained his thought process to Hermione: "In Gringotts, when I learnt that Lucius Malfoy basically arm-twisted Crabbe and Goyle into becoming Draco's bodyguards, I lost my disrespect for those two, because they weren't bodyguarding Draco by their own choices. Forgiving the debts is easy, because now it's money that I as Lord Crabbe and I as Lord Goyle owe to me as Lord Malfoy. I could just as easily have paid off the debts, but this would mean less money for Zelda and Bertha to spend on their families. But either way, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, and especially Galina Goyle, deserve to breathe free, completely done with Lucius Malfoy's shit."

Hermione thought this was a kind and generous thing that Harry had done for Draco's former bodyguards. She heartily approved, and she nonverbally (and enthusiastically) communicated her approval to Harry.

****

Two and a half days later Friday, 18th August, 8:58 a.m

6 days, 1 hour after the start of Harry's trial

Outside Courtroom Ten, the Ministry of Magic

Albus Dumbledore said to clearly nervous Arthur Weasley, "Arthur, as soon as today's session begins, I need for you to make a motion that the Acting Chief Witch position be

replaced with the permanent Chief Warlock position; and that the Chief Warlock again be me. I would be grateful if you would do this, Arthur."

Arthur was desperate now, and both wizards knew it. Since the moment that Arthur had spoken his divorce decree against his wife, he had no money, he had no house, he had no custody of his two minor children and his magic was 75-percent bound. What did Arthur have left, right now? The title of Head of the Ancient House of Weasley (one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight!) and 25 percent of his magic—and this was all. However, with the wave of a wand, the Chief Warlock or Chief Witch could reverse Arthur's misfortunes, if Arthur could prove that his ex-wife had committed adultery during the marriage, or had potioned Arthur her husband. Albus knew that Arthur had such proof, a parchment written in Saint Mungo's, in the pocket of his robes.

Albus had become skilled at implying promises without speaking them—and hence, without being bound by them. Let Arthur believe that if his divorce decree would be heard before Albus, as Chief Warlock, the results would be favourable and Arthur's spoken decree would be upheld. But for the Greater Good, Albus planned quite the opposite: to not uphold Arthur's spoken decree and to let Molly Prewett keep the house, the money, and custody of Ronald and Ginevra. Yes, Arthur would still keep his seat on the Wizengamot—but Albus was sure that after he hit the ginger-haired man with a sad-sounding Arthur, the proof was insufficient; there was nothing I could do, Albus still could herd Arthur into voting as Albus wished, for years to come.

As Albus was thinking these things, the doors to Courtroom Ten opened. Arthur went to sit in the part of the courtroom that was set aside for witnesses and petitioners—somehow, Harry Potter and Miss Granger already were sitting there!—whilst Albus was forced to sit in the public gallery. Albus was not bothered by this humiliation too much—because he was certain that by the end of the day, he would be back in the Chief Warlock's chair.

Albus, however, was severely annoyed when he saw that American reporter, Kenneth Clark, sitting in the press box.

****

Amelia, as Acting Chief Witch, barely had opened this week's session of the Wizengamot when Arthur Weasley stood and waited for Amelia to recognise him.

Once recognised, Arthur said, "Madam Bones, Albus Dumbledore was removed from the position of Chief Warlock when his sanity was questioned, when he claimed that Lord Voldemort had returned. Since the DMLE now has Voldemort's severed head, I move that Albus Dumbledore be restored to his position of Chief Warlock."

Instead of calling for a second to Arthur's motion, Amelia turned to stare into Albus's eyes, as Albus put on his best grandfatherly smile. Then Amelia said, "Lord Weasley, your motion is out of order. That is new business, and we first must clear away the old business that is already on the agenda. One such item, I remind you, is your own petition to uphold your spoken divorce decree."

Hearing those words, Albus scowled in his beard. He had been expecting, as Chief Warlock, to "influence" Sirius Black's trial, to reverse the emancipation of Harry Potter, and to screw over Arthur Weasley, but that Merlin-forsaken witch with the monocle had ended those plans.

****

The first event on today's agenda was the trial of Sirius Black. Immediately, Albus moved for Amelia to recuse herself because she and Sirius Black were formerly a dating couple.

She replied hotly, "But I wasn't much of a girlfriend, was I? When I was an Auror, I never reminded my superiors that Sirius Black had never received a trial, and when I became Director of the DMLE, I never pushed for my former boyfriend to receive the trial that was his due. But since the death of Acting Chief Warlock Fudge six days ago, I've become Acting Chief Witch, and now I don't need to ask someone else to schedule his trial. In this position, I've the authority to simply declare, 'Sirius Black will be on trial today; deal with it.' And I must wonder, former Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore, why you had this same authority on the day that Sirius Black was arrested, and you have had this same authority continuously from 1981 till two months ago, yet you never have scheduled Sirius Black for a trial. I can only conclude that, for some unimaginable reason, you wanted Sirius Black to rot in prison, exposed to Dementors, even if he were innocent. In short, I will not recuse myself, because I seem to be the only Chief Warlock/Chief Witch who cares about Sirius Black getting a trial!"

****

Sirius Black was brought into the courtroom then. True, he was wearing magic-suppressing handcuffs, but he also had the haircut and the robes of the Head of House Black. Sirius was led to the chains-chair; the chains rattled, but did not capture Sirius's arms and legs.

Amelia made a point—whilst staring into Albus's eyes—to unseal the wills of James and Lily Potter, and to introduce the wills into Sirius's trial, as evidence in Sirius's defence. Because the wills had been cited as evidence in a trial, no future Chief Warlock (or Chief Witch) could seal those wills again. Damn Amelia!

Harry and Miss Granger were called as witnesses in Sirius's trial. They each stated that a little over a year ago, they had seen rat-animagus Peter Pettigrew transform and confess to framing Sirius. Much more effectively for Sirius's defence, the "Slayer of Voldemort" told the court that, once he was assured that Sirius Black was no Death Eater, "I always have felt safe when I've been near my godfather Sirius. If I were still legally a minor, I would be asking you after Sirius's acquittal to make him my Muggle and magical guardians. I definitely would prefer that Sirius Black be who controls my schoolboy self, if I weren't emancipated, instead of the Dursleys and Albus Dumbledore being in charge of me."

The trial of Sirius did not last long after Sirius, Harry and Miss Granger were questioned. Albus realised that the various trials of Mundungus Fletcher had taken longer.

The Wizengamot seat-holders voted then. Sirius was acquitted on all charges, and Amelia granted him restitution for his twelve years in Azkaban.

Then Albus stood to make a motion that Sirius be sent to Saint Mungo's for a mandatory mind-healer evaluation.

Amelia did not simply call for a second. She instead said, "Since Lord Potter-Nott-Malfoy is emancipated, I will not be awarding guardianship of the young man to Lord Black, so I see no point in evaluating Lord Black's mind. Nonetheless, is there a second to Mr Dumbledore's motion?"

Nobody seconded Albus's motion, not even Arthur.

****

Amelia, not Albus, heard Arthur's petition to uphold his spoken divorce decree against his wife. Amelia looked over the Saint Mungo's parchment that Arthur presented. She did not comment aloud on what she was reading, but her eyebrows shot up.

Amelia pointed her wand at the ceiling and said, "I, Amelia Susan Bones, Acting Chief Witch, do uphold the decree of divorce spoken by Arthur Bilius Weasley against his wife, Marion Guinevere Prewett Weasley. I find that Marion Weasley did potion Arthur Weasley so as to alter his thoughts and to impair his judgement. To Arthur Weasley is restored his house, his money, and custody of his children, and these same things are taken from Marion Prewett. The 75-percent magical binding henceforth is removed from Arthur Weasley, and Marion Prewett henceforth shall have her magic 75-percent bound. So mote it be."

Light flashed in the courtroom, then Albus saw Arthur Weasley stand straighter, as the binding of his magical core ended.

****

Meanwhile, at the Burrow

Molly was in the kitchen, talking with Ron and Ginny. Molly was impatient, but doing her best not to show it. Sometime today, Arthur's divorce petition would be heard—and the big question for Molly was, Who would hear Arthur's petition? If it were the Defeater of Grindelwald who would hear Arthur's petition, Molly had nothing to worry about. But if the one sitting in judgement was that prematurely-grey bint who never showed Dumbledore the respect he was due, then Molly soon might have problems.

As Molly was thinking these things, she felt steel cables wrap around her magical core and pull tight. Molly screamed.

Molly had just enough time to see her own hand fall off the Weasley family clock, when something picked Molly up, flew her through the house and out the open front door, flew her over the front garden, and dumped her outside the Weasley wards.

When Molly tried to walk back into the house, the wards gave her a mild electric shock in warning.

When Molly tried to walk into the house again, the electric shock that the wards gave her was painful, and she was shoved ten feet away.

Eventually Ron and Ginny brought Molly her wand—she had left it on the kitchen table— and her clothes. The wards would not let the children hand Molly "her" potions-supplies.

****

Back in Courtroom Ten

Amelia asked Arthur, "During your Hogwarts days, how did you come to be betrothed to Marion Prewett?"

"At Hogwarts, I fancied Ruby Bulstrode, who was beautiful, but I was too shy to ask her to go with me to Hogsmeade. By sixth year, I still had not managed to ask her out. Molly was a Gryffindor like me, but I always thought she acted like a fishwife; I didn't like her. This was before the Malfoy family suckered my father into a false investment scheme, so the Weasley family still had money then. Anyway, in sixth year, suddenly I decided that Ruby Bulstrode was snobbish, whilst I found Molly Prewett's loud and bossy ways to be—well, sexy."

Albus glanced at Cyrus Greengrass, to gauge his reaction. After all, the aforementioned Ruby Bulstrode was now Cyrus Greengrass's wife's sister. Albus saw that Cyrus now was looking at Arthur with pity.

When Albus looked back at Amelia, he saw that she was scowling. Amelia decreed, "As Acting Chief Witch, I'm issuing an arrest warrant for Marion 'Molly' Prewett, for Line Theft and for Potioning a Head of House."

Arthur said, "Thank you, Madam Bones."

Albus sighed. Even when he became Chief Warlock, sometime later today, he could not kill the arrest warrant, or summarily free Molly once she was arrested.

****

Next up was the trial of Rita Skeeter, for being an unregistered water-beetle animagus. Rita was a Pureblood, which normally meant that Veritaserum could be given to her only with her permission. However, Amelia invoked the exception, that anyone could be questioned with Veritaserum when "the security of the magical realm" was at stake.

Veritaserum-potioned Rita confessed to seventy-three counts of trespassing, which included nineteen times listening in on secret meetings held by the Minister for Magic, and "living at Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament."

Harry and Miss Granger testified about Rita's actions during the Triwizard Tournament. Miss Granger revealed that she had captured Rita, but eventually had let the animagus-witch go free, in exchange for a vow.

Rita was sentenced to a fine of G17 300. She also was sentenced to Azkaban for thirteen years and two months. The good news for her: she would be placed in the minimum-security

wing of Azkaban, away from the Dementors. The bad news for Rita was, she would be wearing magic-suppressing handcuffs, even in her prison cell, for 167 out of every 168 hours.

If the courtroom had a barrister present who was representing the Daily Prophet, he or she did not stand up and argue that Rita deserved a lighter sentence; and nobody else stood up to make such an argument. Today, in this courtroom, Rita had no friends. Albus shrugged.

****

With Sirius, Arthur and Rita dealt with, and with the death, six days ago, of Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, the next item on Amelia's agenda was for the Wizengamot to appoint an "Acting" Minister.

Everyone in the room understood that soon there would be an election for the official Minister for Magic, with all wizards and witches over seventeen voting; but nobody could recall any time that the Acting Minister had not been the magical who had been elected to be the permanent Minister.

As soon as Amelia called for nominations for Acting Minister, Harry Potter stood and asked to be recognised.

After Amelia recognised "Lord Potter-Nott-Malfoy," Harry said, "Six days ago, all of you in the Wizengamot were here when I was put on trial for—well, the charges were made up, so I won't repeat them. Anyway, Fudge, his toadlike sidekick, and Lucius Malfoy tried to use my trial to get me legally Kissed and to get all Potter assets seized. Of all the Wizengamot members, only four members voted the first time to acquit me. Then once I was unjustly convicted, only three of the four voted for the minimum possible sentence. For whatever the endorsement of a schoolboy is worth, I state now that I'll be pleased if Amelia Bones, Cyrus Greengrass or Augusta Longbottom is chosen as the Acting Minister."

Harry bowed to each of the three people he had praised, then sat back down.

Miss Granger turned to look Albus in the eyes, shook her head, and flashed the thumb down

gesture. Which Albus took to mean Harry will not give you an endorsement.

Soon the Acting Minister nominees were: Amelia Bones, and a normally silent wizard, named Riverham, from the Dark faction.

Amelia won the election for Acting Minister. She immediately named Rufus Scrimgeour to be Acting Director of the DMLE.

The Britain-wide election for Minister for Magic was scheduled for Monday, August 28th.

****

Then it came time for "New Business," and finally Arthur could place Albus's name in nomination as Chief Warlock—

—only for Amelia to list Albus's "acts of malfeasance" as the former Chief Warlock: sealing the Potters' wills; appointing the Dursleys to be Harry's Muggle guardians, despite what the

Potter wills said; Albus appointing himself as Harry's magical guardian, despite what the Potter wills said; and failing to give Sirius Black a trial.

Then to add insult to injury, Amelia made her own nomination for Chief Warlock: Cyrus Greengrass.

Cyrus was elected Chief Warlock. Albus was not. Cyrus's first act as Chief Warlock was to adjourn the Wizengamot session till next week.

****

Sirius and Hermione followed in Harry's wake as Harry walked up to Madam Bones. The newly-minted Acting Minister for Magic was surrounded by brown-nosers, but she ignored them all to give Harry her full attention.

Harry, after congratulating Madam Bones on her election, said, "I wish to visit the ten Death Eaters in Azkaban. I understand that any visit to any prisoner in Azkaban requires the Minister's permission."

Madam Bones asked, "What do you want to visit them for?"

Harry's grin was wolfish. "I'm told that prisoners in Azkaban aren't allowed letters or newspapers. So I want to see their faces when I share news that they might not be aware of. That forty-one Death Eaters, including Lucius Malfoy, Peter Pettigrew, Walden Macnair and Severus Snape, are dead. And by the way, 'Lord' Voldemort, a.k.a Tom Marvolo Riddle, also is dead."

"Sure, I'll let you visit them for that."

"May I take things one step further? If the warden can keep the Dementors away for a bit, I'd like to call house-elf Dobby to the ten Death Eaters' part of the prison, and Dobby can bring me a table covered with a white tablecloth, a chair, and Muggle fizzy drinks and Muggle snacks. All quite genteel, all quite refined, and all quite joyful. And all the while, those ten dangerous Death Eaters stand in their little barred cells and gnash their teeth."

"I like that idea, Mr Potter. Not only will I permit all that, I think I'll take an hour out of my day, sometime soon, and go with you. I'm eager to see Bellatrix's reaction to your news."

****

A minute later

Sirius, Harry and Miss Granger had just walked slowly out of Courtroom Ten, all three smiling and talking, when Albus caught up with them.

"Sirius my boy, I insist that you stop this foolishness, and write out for me the Secret for the Fidelius on your house."

Sirius stood straight. "I am Sirius Black, Head of House Black; you will address me as 'Lord Black,' Headmaster Dumbledore, since I no longer give you free use of my first name. As for

my Secret, Headmaster, that is for me to tell, or to show the written text of, to those whom I trust—a state which no longer describes you. Now, Headmaster, quit bothering me—I'm no longer your student, no longer a member of your cult of personality, and you have no claim to me. Come, Harry; come, Hermione; we have ice cream to eat."

Without waiting for Albus to dismiss them, Sirius, Harry and Hermione walked away.

Albus overheard Harry say, "I'm surprised you didn't threaten to Lancia holes in his heart." Sirius replied, "I'm not that angry with him—not yet."

****

Sirius did, as promised, take Harry and Hermione to the Executive Dining Room on Level Five, where he bought them ice cream.

Some people in the Dining Room walked up to the three as they were eating, and thanked the trio because they had killed You-Know-Who and many Death Eaters.

Some people in the Dining Room glared at the three as they were eating, presumably because they had killed You-Know-Who and many Death Eaters. Harry shrugged it off—You can't please everyone.

After the three ate ice cream, they wandered through the building till they found the Hall of Records. Sirius handed over the parchment that was signed by all three Grangers and by himself, declaring that Sirius Black was Hermione's magical guardian till 19th September 1996. The clerk charged Sirius a two-galleon filing fee, which he paid. Then the clerk stamped the parchment without even reading it.

Minerva McGonagall was officially no longer Hermione's magical guardian.

____________________________